Colorado’s second-highest court agreed last week that Boulder County prosecutors fell short of demonstrating a man likely attempted extreme indifference murder against multiple SWAT officers when he set off an explosion in his hotel room, causing window damage without any injuries.

Prosecutors charged Leon Kiyoshi Gladwell with attempted extreme indifference murder. Under Colorado law, a person is guilty of extreme indifference murder if they engage in knowing conduct that creates a “grave risk of death” to another person and exhibits “extreme indifference to the value of human life.”

The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office maintained Gladwell’s conduct on Sept. 24, 2020 constituted an attempt at that offense.

Gladwell, who had recently been paroled from prison, was staying at a Residence Inn in Longmont when his parole officer and other law enforcement received a tip that Gladwell was paranoid and feared for his life. When the officers contacted him, Gladwell exhibited suicidality and signs of potential drug use.

Gladwell’s parole officer confiscated multiple knives from Gladwell, which were violations of his parole conditions. Hoping to avoid violence, police sought a warrant for Gladwell’s arrest. Later that evening, SWAT officers attempted to extract Gladwell from his hotel room.

At some point, Gladwell set a fire and caused a butane canister in his room to explode. The force caused the window glass to blow out and drop to the ground. Other than the window itself, the explosion left the room largely unaffected.

Originally, prosecutors charged Gladwell with one count of attempted extreme indifference murder, but then divided the charge into 13 counts — one for each officer allegedly present.

At a 2023 preliminary hearing before District Court Judge Nancy W. Salomone, in which prosecutors needed to demonstrate probable cause to bring Gladwell to trial, the district attorney’s office did not ultimately contest that Gladwell’s actions caused a grave risk of death. Instead, the prosecution argued Gladwell only needed to take a “substantial step toward” a scenario where the SWAT officers “would have suffered a grave risk.”

Salomone concluded the evidence did not show the explosion put the officers at grave risk of death. Further, she agreed one of the officers named as a victim was not even present at the time. Salomone dismissed the 13 counts of attempted murder from the 34-count case.

The prosecution appealed her decision, maintaining Gladwell engaged in “inherently deadly conduct.”

The evidence showed “Defendant was willing to take lives indiscriminately and that he had taken a substantial step toward the commission of extreme indifference murder,” wrote Senior Deputy District Attorney Ryan P. Day.

But a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals disagreed with him. In a Dec. 19 opinion, Judge Elizabeth L. Harris wrote that the “inherent dangerousness of the conduct” does not define extreme indifference murder. Instead, the defendant must engage in behavior that is “practically certain” to cause someone’s death.

Prosecutors “do not argue (the evidence) showed that Gladwell created a grave risk of death to another person. Accordingly, we conclude that the district court did not err by dismissing the thirteen counts of attempted extreme indifference murder,” she wrote.

The case is People v. Gladwell.